The Kyuubi
by Lady Tomboy
Summary: He had no last name and was a simple servant boy for the Hyuuga’s. Yet someone was after his life. What could a boy have done to get an entire clan to the point where they thought of nothing else but total annihilation? [Naruto x Hinata]
1. Just a Kid

_**The Kyuubi**_

_Summary: He had no last name and was a simple servant boy for the Hyuuga's. Yet someone was after his life. What could a boy have done to get an entire clan to the point where they thought of nothing else but total annihilation? Naruto/Hinata  
_

**Disclaimer:** "I own it I finally own it!" runs away as fast as she can. The people with the restraining jackets hot on her trail. "Look here!" shows them piece of paper with the words 'I own it' written on them. "You see? I'm not crazy!" LoL Okay just kidding I don't own Naruto of course or anything else that might come from somewhere else. All other stuff that I made up on my own is mine of course :-)

**AN: **Well this is the first time I try my hand at a Naruto Ficcie. It might not look like much yet but bear with me please :-) Kurai, thank you so much for putting up with me! LoL And thank for beta-ing. You did a great job! Just hope this isn't too boring... This story is dedicated to my other beta, who's also my brother. For putting up with the many times he reads my other stuff over for mistakes etc. THANKS! Other than that I hope you'll enjoy the story!

_

* * *

_

_Prologue: Just a Kid_

"It's a boy!" one of the medics, called Yura, yelled and showed the infant to his exhausted mother.

The mother reached out for her baby with her hands in the air. "My boy…" she said sounding rather weak, which wasn't an odd thing after going through labour. The medics looked worried, but handed the crying baby over to the woman anyway.

With all the love a mother could posses for her newly born child; she looked down at him with admiration. "Naruto…" she said softly and reached out to stroke his face gently.

"Miss? Are you alright Miss!" Yura asked the rapidly paling woman, who was still cradling her child.

Before anyone could interfere, or knew what was happening, her arms went limp and fell down from the loving embrace they had on the infant. The lack of its mother's arms securely wrapped around him was enough for the infant to become upset and it started to cry, giving those heart wrenching sobs only little children were capable of.

Within seconds, the medics had pulled the crying baby off the woman, and had started their healing jutsu's, but it was already too late. She was gone.

* * *

Just out side of the hospital all hell broke lose. A huge fox like demon was on a rampage, trampling all he saw beneath his huge paws. All available shinobi were trying to hold it at bay, making sure it wouldn't arrive at the actual village, until the Fourth Hokage showed up with a possible solution. 

No one knew where it came from, or how to beat it. It was a mystery, one which would probably never be solved.

The Fourth, in all his glory, accompanied by a huge frog called Gamabunta, faced the demon head on.

With a wave of his hand he sent the remaining shinobi, those who managed to survive the attack, back to the village.

Hesitant they fell back, not sure whether or not to leave their fearless leader to face the demon on his own, but not before taking the wounded back with them.

Not one of them noticed the little bundle he carried with him which was carefully tucked away beneath his robe. All they saw was a huge demon, who'd torn apart the outskirts of their village in a matter of seconds, and al they could think about was what would happen to the village, their families, if the Fourth wouldn't be able to stop it. Then it would all be over. But did one man hold that much power? If one man could do it, it would be the Fourth without a doubt. He was their Hokage after all. The number one ninja in their village.

The Fourth on the other hand had different thoughts. He knew that what he was about to do, would change the infant's life for good, that is _if_ it managed to survive, but he had no other choice. There was an entire village that depended on him, and as the Hokage of that same village, it was his job to make the tough decisions… even sacrifices.

He started to run through a sequence of seals, a Jutsu which had never been performed until that very moment. Before he made the final seal, he looked down at the bundle in his arms.

"Forgive me… My son." he whispered before he performed the last seal.

All the shinobi whom had by now returned to the village and their families, were standing outside. Their eyes were glued to the sky, afraid to catch a glimpse of the ferocious demon, ready to send their wives and children away the moment it turned up, hoping against hope it wouldn't be too late. But all they saw was a huge flash, blinding them, and then nothing. No one knew what happened exactly that day, but they knew that the Fourth had come through for them once more. He was a hero and would be remembered as such for eternity.

* * *

"Hyuuga-sama!" one of the servants yelled, as he ran towards his master cradling something in his arms. "Hyuuga-sama!" he yelled again. 

Hyuuga Hiashi looked up from his work, wondering what all the fuss was about. "Enter." he said slightly annoyed, when someone knocked so loud on his door, that it sounded more like he was trying to knock through the door than anything else.

"I… I…" the servant stuttered under the scrutinizing gaze from Hiashi.

"What is the matter?" he asked getting rather impatient.

"I'm sorry!" he said and bowed quickly. "There is something that requires your attention Hyuuga-sama!" he continued and placed the bundle he'd been cradling all this time, on the table for Hiashi to see. He also placed a sealed scroll down next to it.

Hiashi looked down at the bundle, then at the scroll. "Leave." was the only thing he said as his gaze landed on the servant, who bowed and quickly made his leave.

Now that he was alone, he picked the scroll up and activated his Byakugan. By the looks of it, the person who sent him that scroll didn't want anyone to know about it. It had several jutsu's placed on it in case it would fall in the wrong hands. A jutsu that would destroy the scroll the moment it was opened, a permanent silence jutsu to make sure anything that was written in the scroll stayed there, and several others. One activated after the other was dismantled and so on.

There was one however, that clearly gave away who the sender was. The jutsu was so rare that it could've only been from one person.

With the help of his Byakugan, he managed to carefully open the scroll without activating any of the jutsu's and sat back down to read it.

After he finished reading it, he carefully laid the scroll back down on his desk and, for the first time, looked at the bundle.

"So you're Naruto…" he said before he stood up and walked over towards the big doors, which led out into the corridor. "Bring Nana to me immediately." he told the first person who walked by and closed the doors again.

Only moments later, there was a timid knock on the door. "Hyuuga-sama?" Nana, one of the maids, said with her head bowed. "You sent for me Hyuuga-sama?" she asked carefully.

"Yes. Sit down Nana. There's something I'd like to discuss with you." She was nervous, he could see it clearly. "No need to be nervous." he told her when he saw her glance at the bundle on his desk, but she quickly bowed her head down again and waited for him to speak once more.

"This," he said and picked the bundle up from his desk, "is Naruto. You will take him to the nursery and take care of him. If anyone asks you about the boy, he is an orphan and I decided to give him a home. He'll be raised as one of the servant's boys. If you can't remember all this, simply sent them to me and I will answer their questions. That was all." Hiashi said and handed her the infant.

From here on out, things might become rather difficult. But he had given his word. No one was to know…

* * *

Not more than two months after the Kyuubi incident and the death of the Fourth Hokage, the village had settled down a bit. Currently they were in the middle of renovating the town, while the Third had taken over his old position again. 

At that same time in the Hyuuga estate, Hiashi was pacing around the hall ways. His dear wife was currently going through labour.

Nana, who would become his wife's personal maid to help with the baby, was ordering some maids to clear out the nursery.

"What is the meaning of this?" Hiashi asked slightly annoyed with the ruckus. "Where do you think you're going with all this?" he inquired motioning to all the baby supplies.

"Hyuuga-sama!" she said obviously shocked. "I got orders to move Naruto to a different chamber. This one is being redecorated for the new baby." she said in a rush and bowed low.

"Who ordered this?" he asked curtly.

"The Lords… "Nana answered hesitantly.

"I see. Bring everything back the way it was. If I want something to change I will let you know personally." And with that said he turned on his heel and walked away.

"But sir!" Nana spoke up which made him turn around. "The Lords said that it was inappropriate for the Hyuuga heir to grow up among the company of a mere servant boy!" she squeaked out, afraid of what would happen to her for talking back to her lord.

"Have everything returned to the way it was. That will be all." he said with authority and went back to his pacing.

Normally he wasn't the type of person to pace, but becoming a father was something big, and honestly, he was quite nervous. But the moment the medics came out and told him he was the father of a beautiful baby girl, all worries were lost and replaced by happiness.

Several years later, everything changed.

"Naruto you little brat! Get back here!" Nana yelled rushing after Naruto.

"Nana look it's snowing!" he cried happily as he jumped around throwing baby powder all over the place.

Ever since Nana told them a bedtime story about snow he had been entirely obsessed with it. Nana couldn't handle it anymore. She had heard the town's people talk. Everyone talked about it, even after 4 years!

"How could Hyuuga-sama have done such a thing as taking that brat into his home! How can he even stand the sight of it! How can he possible sleep quietly at nights, knowing that monster's in his home, under the same roof as his daughter! They should've left him to die with his family, that little monster!" These were only some of the things the town's people cried out, but all of them agreed on one thing. It was too dangerous to leave the little demon to roam freely around town; like it had done for the last few years.

It was even worse when she had the kid with her. "If you go down that road, you can dump him in the river girl. Do us all a favour and drown him!" an older man had told her once, and even offered to push Naruto in the river for her. "That demon is better of dead!"

Back then she didn't know what they were talking about. She had liked Naruto. Sure he had more energy to spare than any other kid she'd ever known, and sure he was a hand full, or more in his case, but that didn't mean he was a bad kid. In fact he had his heart in the right place and his intentions, no matter how weird they may have looked at first, were always pure and innocent.

Or at least that's what she had always thought until that one day she went to one of the local stores, to get some new baby supplies for Hinata's younger sister Hanabi. She had taken Naruto along with her, in the hopes that he would have calmed down a bit by the time they got home for diner.

"She must be crazy, going alone with that demon brat! It's dangerous! Who knows what he'll do to her! Remember what happened to the fourth! It is just biding its time, waiting until we've let our guard down, to strike when we least expect it! Kill it before it kills us!" those had been the words of several women in that same store. They threw fearful glances at the kid and shooed him away once he came to close.

It was that day that she had started to wonder about several things. Like, what actually did happened to the Fourth? And what happened to the fox demon that had been rampaging at the out skirts of town? A huge demon like that didn't disappear over night did it? After all the body was never found. Did that mean it was still out there somewhere?

Nana didn't have to wait very long for answers. One day when she was cleaning the nursery, she over heard a few of the other maids talking.

"Have you heard the latest?" one of the girls had whispered urgently to another one. "The little kid that Hyuuga-sama so generously took into his home? Yeah well, he isn't actually a kid… I heard it's the demon fox! The one that killed the Fourth!"

"So that's why they never found its remains!" another exclaimed.

The others gasped while another one corrected her friend. "No I heard that the demon is sealed within the kid, and it's just waiting for a good time to come out for revenge! Someone should tell Hyuuga-sama about this! He's too good, he should just kick him out while he's still small enough to man handle!"

That information had shocked Nana to say the least, and ever since that day she had started to change… It was difficult to continue her care for Naruto. Her view of him changed greatly. Not just that, in fact she had started to fear him. What if they were right? What if it really was the demon fox? What if it was actually just waiting for the right moment, until she was once again alone with him, to strike!

Several crashes and many curses rang through the hall which quickly awoke her from her stupor.

"I'm going to kill you!" the cook yelled after Naruto, who was quick to leave the kitchen and the angry man behind him. "The food is ruined! Now I have to start all over again! Keep that demon away from me!" he yelled at Nana who had resumed her chase after Naruto once again.

"Naruto, what will all those people think if they see the house in this state! Hyuuga-sama will be ashamed!" she hissed trying to get a hold of him.

Naruto on the other hand ignored her. What was wrong with her? Didn't she like the snow he was making for her? And why were all those people giving him these evil glares? It wasn't like he did anything wrong right? He just wanted to cheer Hinata up again. She hadn't smiled at him all day and he didn't really understand why not. After all he didn't have a mother either and he could still smile…

He ran into another room and there she was, clad in black and bearing the saddest expression he'd ever seen.

"Hinata look!" he yelled excitedly. "It's snow! Just like Nana told us in the story!" he finished happily, looking expectantly at Hinata. He was so sure it would cheer her up, that the tear that trickled down her face made him stop in his tracks and walk over to her.

"Hina-chan…?" he asked slowly not sure what to do now, and bowed his head to try and get a good look at her face.

"Go on get lost, you're only upsetting her more." a woman hissed. Naruto had never seen her before but she seemed to know Hinata at least. She pulled her closer in an effort to comfort her. Little did he know that she was trying to keep Hinata away from him…

"There you are!" Nana hissed and grabbed him roughly by the arm and almost dragged him out of the room. "That is no way to behave at a funeral! Can't you think about other people's pain for once in your life!" she ranted on. "Go on, go play out side. That way you won't be such a bother. Don't come back until I call you!" she yelled and shoved him out the door.

He strolled down the streets but he didn't get it. What went wrong? He had even got her that snow she had been going on and on about, but it didn't work. She still had that sad look on her face.

"Come on let's go." a mother said as she took her child away from Naruto whom hadn't even noticed them. It wasn't like it was anything new; after all he had noticed it happen before. For some reason people didn't like him too much.

A little while back he had been playing outside with a few other kids, waiting for dinner. They had been getting along just fine and even wanted to play again the next day.

One moment they had been building sand castles, the next moment some parents came along and shooed him away. Not only that but they also forbid their children to play with him.

He had been upset to say the least. He ran all the way home where he rushed around the house to find Nana. She would know what to do. The moment he spotted her, he launched himself at her and started to cry.

He told her everything, even how cruel they had been to him and how unfair he thought it was. How he didn't understand why they couldn't play with him and more. Finally after several minutes he looked up at Nana.

She looked down upon him with a disdainful look. "Well you had it coming. You shouldn't be such a pain all the time." she said and walked away, leaving him to his own pain and sorrows.

Naruto stood there, stumped. He had expected her to pick him up and say something sweet as she always did. To tell him that everything was going to be alright and that they just didn't know him yet. To give him some form of comfort the way she always did and end up cheering him up, but this? What had he done to her? Why did she hate him all of a sudden? He just really didn't get it.

For the first time in his little life, he felt alone and found himself wishing for a mother. That day he had made himself a promise. He was going to stop crying. It didn't get him anywhere anyways. Some day he would show them that he was more than just an annoying little brat…

* * *

**AN: **Thank you for reading. I know not much happened so far but like I said before bare with me. You might be pleasantly surprised :-) If you liked it leave me a review, they're are so motivating hehe if you know what I mean (wink) 


	2. Just a mere servant boy?

_Disclaimer: See chapter 1, I'm pretty sure it's there... if not well let me know :-) _

**AN: **I'm sorry for the long wait! I never intended for things to go this slow but well lots of things happened lately. Anyways I hope you guys won't be disappointed. Kurai, thanks for digging through the story and fix all my errors, You're amamzing! And to everyone who actually read this, I mean wow! I never expected to get more than 2 or 3 reviews tops! You guys are amazing too!

Oh yeah before I forget, since there was a bit confusion about the earlier chapter... no one knows exactly what's up with Naruto, all that's been said so far were assumptions, rumours, and old women's talk :-) Hope that clears things up. Enjoy!

_Chapter 1: Just a mere servant boy?_

_

* * *

_

He didn't dare pass. The gates were as far as he would, or could go. A few years ago, he had tried to get past them too.

_It had been a lovely day and as usual he wanted to go out and play. He saw Hinata leaving and followed her, like he used to do all the time. She was going to that place again… According to Nana it was called school. _

_He had been so excited about the thought of a whole lot of other children to play with, that he'd followed her onto the school yard._

_It was huge! He looked around in awe. There were so many children, that he didn't know where to go. _

"_Hinata!" he yelled excitedly over the yard when he spotted her walking timidly towards several big doors. _

_Hearing his voice made her stop in her tracks and she turned with a shocked expression towards him. "Naruto…" she whispered and carefully moved in his direction. _

"_I'm going to school too!" he cried out excitedly. "Now we can play together all day long!" _

_Hinata smiled at him but before she could respond to him, she was roughly pushed out of the way and hit her head against the wall knocking her out cold._

"_Hinata!" Naruto called out too shocked to react right away. "What did you do to her!" he yelled angrily at the boy who was currently towering dangerously over him._

"_What's a mere servant boy like you doing here?" the boy asked. _

_He tried to shake Hinata awake but she wasn't responding to him. Without thinking, Naruto launched himself at the boy. "How dare you hurt Hinata!" he yelled out enraged. _

_To his great dismay, the other boy actually knew how to fight. Naruto had never learned that. All he knew was that it hurt when you got hit or kicked. Several other guys were cheering the fight on. _

_Not long after he started the fight, the other boy got the upper hand and was currently trying to fuse his face with the stones on the floor. In the meantime Hinata had regained her consciousness while Naruto seemed to be losing it. _

_She shook her head trying to get rid of the hurt and then noticed Naruto on the floor, with Fey on top off him, currently beating the living day lights out of him._

"_You won't… get away… with this." Naruto managed to groan out painfully. "I'll make you pay… for what you did… to Hinata!" he growled. _

_Fey laughed out loud. "You? You're going to make me pay? Don't make me laugh!" he said and started to laugh. His buddies joined in, also laughing. "Did you hear guys? This silly servant boy thinks he can take me! I guess that means we'll have to teach him a lesson." he said and smirked down at a by now bloody looking Naruto._

"_Stop!" a voice suddenly screamed. _

_Everyone fell silent and looked in the direction where the voice came from. Hinata had thrown herself between his cronies and the fighting duo. "Don't hurt him!"_

_Naruto saw that tears were streaming down her little face, and when she noticed that everyone was staring at her ever since her outburst, she only got more nervous. That Fey guy would pay for making Hinata cry. _

_Fey got up from his place on top of Naruto and stalked over to Hinata. "You don't want me to hurt that little servant boy?" he asked threatening. Hinata could only gulp and nod. _

"_Stay away from her!" Naruto yelled at Fey but all he got was that annoying smirk. Slowly a red light started to emit from Naruto and some of Fey's buddies noticed the strange light and started to cringe away slowly. _

_Fey on the other hand noticed nothing of the sort. He grabbed Hinata by her jacket and hauled her up to his eye level. "And who might you be little girl?" _

_When Fey noticed that Hinata wasn't going to reply to him any time soon he threw her away. "Don't put your nose where it doesn't belong!" he yelled at her before stalking off with his cronies right behind him. _

_In the meantime Naruto had managed to get up just in time to catch Hinata, before she was smashed against the wall again. He caught the full blow and everything turned black, the red light vanishing with the world around him._

Naruto shook his head as his gaze landed on that same yard. Ever since that day he'd given up the idea of going to school. However, it never stopped him from following Hinata.

He still found that whole school thing highly intriguing. He noticed that when some of the teacher's took their students outside, that it wasn't to play. No, they taught them how to fight. Ever since that day that Naruto had gotten in trouble at the school with that Fey boy, he'd wanted to learn how to fight.

"What are you doing here?" a voice from behind him asked suspiciously. "Don't think even for a second that they let demons like you in there."

Naruto sighed and turned around to face Nana. "Why not? I'm just like all the others…" he told her sadly.

Nana only laughed. "You are nothing more than a low servant boy, so start acting like one." she spat and handed him a bag filled with groceries. "Bring them back to the manor and after that go outside and stay there until I call you." With that she turned on her heel and left Naruto to do what she told him to do.

* * *

After he delivered the groceries to the cook, Naruto wandered back into the forest not sure what to do next. It was no use to go back to the school and see if Hinata was already done for the day. Besides him, there were no other kids around that he could play with, or if there were kids, he wasn't allowed to play with them for some reason. 

All he really wanted was a friend. Someone to keep him company when he was lonely. Why didn't anyone want to play with him?

Sighing he sat down against a tall tree. It seemed like even the day was mocking him. The sun was shining so brightly it hurt his eyes. The way he felt, it would've been more appropriate if it had been raining like there was no tomorrow.

Next to him he heard something rustle in the bushes. Cautiously he turned around to see who wanted to scold him for slacking of this time. He was surprised when he didn't find a person there, but a tiny bird.

It held its head to one side and looked at him with big eyes, as if it was trying to ask him why he was so sad.

Naruto smiled a tiny sad smile. "Hello there, I see I'm not the only one who's lonely eh?" he asked the little bird.

He was a little surprised when the bird chose to sit down on his shoulder, but at the same time it gave him some form of comfort. At least not everything hated him.

Sometimes when he was feeling as lonely as he had been feeling today, he'd run into an animal which was only happy to keep him company. That is, _after_ he learned that you weren't supposed to hug them too tightly, they didn't like that much.

With the bird on his shoulder he made his way back to the village. He bumped into a woman who was currently doing her groceries and made her spill all her stuff on the floor.

When he bent down to pick it up for her she started to hit him with her purse. "Don't you dare steal my stuff you little demon! And don't touch my food! I don't want to end up the same way the Uzumaki's did after meeting with you!" she yelled in hysterics.

The woman snatched everything away and made a run for it.

"I was only trying to help…" Naruto said softly. He smiled sadly back at the bird, which flew back down on his shoulder, after leaving its spot because of the force from the crash.

Naruto shrugged sadly and continued to wander around the town aimlessly. What did that woman mean when she was talking about the Uzumaki's? He'd never even heard of that thing… So how was he supposed to be responsible for whatever that had happened to it? He'd have to ask Nana about it… Maybe she knew what the woman had been talking about.

With his mind set, he made his way back to the manor, bird still purged on his shoulders.

"Nana, Nana!" he yelled as he rushed inside, going from one room to the next until he spotted her doing the laundry.

She turned around to give him an annoyed look. "What do you want this time? Can't you see I'm actually trying to do my job?" she snapped at him and went back to doing the laundry.

"What's an Uzumaki?" he asked her with the innocence only a child could muster.

She dropped her laundry and looked at him with big eyes. "What did you say?" she asked too shocked to bring out anything else. Her face looked ghostly white, and Naruto wondered whether or not she was getting sick.

"Are you alright Nana?" he asked her and tried to put his hand on her forehead to feel her temperature, the way she used to do when he was little.

She on the other hand, smacked his hand away with irritation clearly edged in her face. "Don't do that." she snapped at him after she'd regained her composure.

"What's an Uzumaki?" Naruto asked her again, now that she seemed to be alright again.

"Don't say that name." she told him dangerously. "You, of all people, shouldn't say their name…" she continued in the same tone.

Not understanding her at all he pressed on. "What's an Uzumaki?" he asked.

This time Nana stayed quiet but instead slapped him across his face. "I told you to stop saying that name." she hissed out dangerously. "You should know the answer to that question better than I do." With that said, she got up and walked away, leaving Naruto to stare after her, his hand still pressed against his now burning cheek.

"Naruto-kun?" a soft voice sounded from behind him. "What's wrong?" it asked softly.

"Hinata…" he said and turned around trying to cheer up for her. "Nothing's wrong, I was just thinking about something." he told her sheepishly. "But look what I found!" he said, and pointed excitedly towards his left shoulder.

Hinata followed the direction he was pointing in with her eyes but saw nothing. She turned her questioning gaze back to him.

Naruto who had been looking as well didn't understand it. The bird had been there only moments ago. Then he remembered the slap Nana had given him across the face. _"It must have gotten scared." _he thought silently.

Instead he decided to tell Hinata about the bird he'd found earlier that day and how it had even come to sit on his shoulder.

Naruto couldn't tell whether or not she believed his story about the bird, but she kept smiling at him, never losing her attention for even a single moment. At least she listened to him…

* * *

The next few days he returned to the same tree in the forest. He hoped the little bird would show up again so that he could proof to Hinata that he hadn't been lying, but no matter how long he stayed there, it didn't come back. 

With a heavy sigh he gave up on it eventually. Who knew, maybe one day when they were both feeling lonely again, they'd meet up again and if so, he would finally be able to show Hinata that he hadn't been lying.

The next day Nana told him that he was supposed to go to Hiashi's office. He knocked on the door the moment he got there and barged right in after wards, not even waiting for Hiashi's reply.

Hiashi looked up from his work and when he noticed Naruto looking at him expectantly he put his work down. "Naruto, sit down." he told the boy.

"Now that you're 6 years old, I think it's time for you to take up a new responsibility." he started off seriously.

"I can finally become a guard and learn how to fight then?" Naruto asked excitedly jumping up and down in his chair.

Hiashi hid a smile. "No not quite. It's something far more important than that." he told him and Naruto's face lit up like a candle in a dark room.

"Really? What then? What do I have to do!" he cried out, not being able to hold his excitement.

"I want you, to take care of Hinata. You are going to make sure she gets to school in time, doesn't forget her training lessons, and everything else that's important. You're also responsible for picking her up after school and returning her home safely. Do you understand all that?" Hiashi asked Naruto.

"Yes sir!" he said excitedly and actually managed to sound polite at the same time. "But," Hiashi interrupted his excited ranting. "don't ever let me find out that you gave her a reason to cry. You're supposed to protect her. That's the most important part, you hear?" he asked and pinned Naruto down with a hard gaze.

Naruto nodded quickly and jumped up. "I'm going to start right away!" he yelled and rushed out of the door.

His first trial of his new job didn't keep him waiting for long.

That night he woke up hearing several strange sounds emitting from Hinata's room. Taking his new job very seriously, he got up and snuck over to her room.

He knew he wasn't allowed in her room other than when she invited him inside but who knew? Maybe she was in danger!

Carefully Naruto opened the door and looked around. He saw a small quivering ball in Hinata's bed. What was going on here?

He walked over to her bed and poked the quivering ball with his finger.

"Eep!"

The sound came so suddenly that Naruto pulled his finger away as if it had bitten him and he tumbled backwards, landing roughly on his behind.

"Hinata? Are you alright?" he whispered into the darkness while he rubbed his sore behind.

He saw some hair and two eyes poke above the blanket. "Na.. Naruto-kun?" she whispered quietly into the darkness.

"Yeah, it's me." he whispered back. "Aren't you supposed to be sleeping?" he asked but the moment she was going to reply to him another lightning flash flashed through the window, which made Hinata duck back under her covers, quivering once more.

Naruto looked around clueless. "What's wrong?" he asked her not understanding why she was hiding under her blankets.

"C…Can't you h… hear that?" she asked shaking all over.

"Hear what?" he asked her still confused.

"That!" she cried silently when another round of thunder came, flashing dangerously through her room.

Naruto looked at her questioningly. "What's there to be afraid of?" he asked her gently.

"People… die from it." she whispered eventually.

That shocked Naruto. So that's why she was afraid of it, but that still didn't make sense to him. "Hinata… Why would people die from thunder?" he asked her confused. "It's nothing to be afraid of. Don't you know that the thunder only comes out when someone's lost his way? It's there to guide people, and even animals. It protects them!"

Naruto was so serious that Hinata was left with no choice but to believe him. "But…" she started hesitantly.

"But what?" he asked her wondering why this got her so upset. He moved over towards her bed and sat down next to her.

"The last time... last time it… it took my mother away!" she cried out suddenly and buried her face in her hands.

That had Naruto stumped. She thought the lighting took her mother away? "Hina-chan… Listen to me. The lightning it… it only guides spirits up there." he told her pointing towards the sky. "The lighting makes a crack in the sky and when it does, it signals the lost spirits where they're supposed to go now. That's why it flashes so brightly. Other wise they would stay lost for ever and ever. At least that's what I think happens." he finished all of a sudden shyly.

Hinata looked at him surprised. "You… you really think so?" she asked still sniffing.

"Of course." he said with a grin.

A single tear trailed its way down her cheek and Naruto caught it. He held his finger up and held it up for Hinata's face.

"Make a wish." he told her as he moved his finger with her tear on it, in front of her mouth.

"Why?" she said looking surprised at him.

"Didn't anyone ever tell you, that every tear you spill is a dream you've either forgotten, or given up on?" he asked her with a small smile. "If you make a wish on a tear and send it of to the wind, it'll come true. Maybe not right away, but I'm sure it will happen someday." he told her firmly.

Hinata smiled at him through her tears. She closed her eyes and when she opened them again, she blew her tear away, sending it on a journey, hoping that one day it would return to her.

He smiled sheepishly at her, not really knowing what to do now.

Hinata on the other hand gave him a bright grateful smile and, before he knew it, hugged him briefly. "Thank you." she whispered and lay back down.

"Eh yeah, no problem!" he said trying to hide the blush that was making its way to his cheeks. Good thing it was dark.

"Good night, Hina-chan." he whispered and went back to his own room.

* * *

"Has it been found yet?" a voice in a dark room asked to the person who'd just walked in. 

The person walked across the room and kneeled down before the man, who was hidden behind a screen. He placed both hands on the floor and bend his head down as well. "I'm sorry sir, but we haven't been able to find a trace of it yet."

The man behind the screen was anything but pleased with the news. "It's been 6 years… and still you haven't been able to find anything!" he asked dangerously.

The man before him cowered. "I'm sorry Daimyo-sama! Please forgive me! We'll find it next time, I'm positive!" he begged.

"You're Toroi right?" the man asked.

"No sir it's…-" but he got interrupted.

"Toroi it is. You don't want to be used for my next experiment do you?"

The man visibly paled. He clearly remembered the last experiment of the Daimyo and he definitely did not want to be a part of the next one. He hadn't been able to sleep for weeks! The screaming of the Daimyo's last experiment had haunted him for weeks on end.

The Daimyo was pleased with the man's reaction. The promise of intense pain could often be worse than actually living through the torture itself. The mind was a powerful thing, especially if it was used against you.

"No! Please don't, I beg of you. I'll find it I swear, just give me some more time…" the man begged for his life.

"Fine, but Toroi…?" the Daimyo interrupted him as he heaved a great sigh of relief. When the man looked back up at his lord he continued. "Don't disappoint me again." he said by way of threat.

The man bowed back down several times and then rushed out of the dark chamber. His life had just been prolonged… but for how long? He rushed back to his men and sent them back out to find it… his very life depended on it.

* * *

**AN: **Hope everyone enjoyed this. Thank you for reading :-) and well lots of reviews are so stimulating to write more :-) 


End file.
